Fiber container with plastic liner sealed in the chime thereof



Nov. 24, 1964 D. s. THoMPsoN 3,158,311

FIBER CONTAINER WITH PLASTIC LINER SEALED IN THE CHIME THEREOF Filed 061,. 20, 1961 :Ema l 'l Ie 1in" H le ZZ "j x l v5 ll I,

ATTORNEYS United States Patent O Fice 3,158,3li ETHER CNTAiNER Wllflii FLASH@ RENE i SEALED EN 'iluil @Hill/il?. iii-SERGE Donald S. Thompson, Ridge, NX., assigner to Continental Can Company, inc., New York, NY., a corporation of New York Filed @ce 2li, 196i., Ser. No., lede-67 3 tCiainis. (Cl. 229-44.)

This invention relates in general to new and useful improvements in the construction of fiber containers, and more particularly relates to a liber container having a liquid impervious liner therein.

There has been on the market for a period of time a heavy ber container or drum which has proved very satisfactory for the intended purpose. However, it is also desired to ship liquids in the drum, which requires the use of a liner. At the present time, liners have been used in these ber containers, but not with the desired results. For example, a semi-rigid plastic liner has been developed for insertion in liber containers. These liners are very expensive, cannot be readily disposed of because of their cost so that the same ber container may be further used for the shipment of granular materials and other non-liquid materials, and have a top chime portion which is so thick that it is diilicult to provide clearance to accommodate conventional covers and locking band structures.

Fiber containers of the type referred to above have also been provided with loose liners which are disposed freely within the ber container, These loose liners gather and bulge in spots and are subject to fatigue cracking due to the flexing thereof caused by the pulsating or sloshing action of liquids therein as vibration occurs in transport, On the other hand, if the liner is made short enough so that there will be no gathering and bulging thereof, the liner has a tendency to slip down into the container during filling with undesired results.

In View of the foregoing, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a relatively inexpensive liner for iber containers, which liner, when properly placed within the container, is not subject to the usual fatigue cracking.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel liner for fiber containers, which liner is formed of relatively thin material and conforms to the configuration of the container for full support thereby, whereby very light material may be utilized and the cost of the liner is greatly reduced.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel liner for fiber containers wherein the liners are anchored to the upper ends of the ber containers by means of the usual chimes wherein slippage of the liner with respect to the fiber container is prevented and the liner is thus firmly held in place within the container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel liner for liber containers for the purpose of transporting liquids and the like within the fiber container, the liner having the upper end thereof anchored to the upper end of the container, and the over-all height of the liner being slightly less than that of the container wherein the bottom of the liner is initially spaced above the bottom of the container so that when the liner is filled with a liquid, the liner will be stretched and there will be no gathering or creasing of the liner so as to subject the liner to fatigue cracking.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel liber container construction having a liner disposed therein, the liber container being provided with an inwardly directed bead adjacent the upper end defining a shoulder on which the cover of the container may seat, and the liner being clamped to an upper wall portion disposed above the shoulder with the upper Wall portion lll Patented Nov., 2d, i964 and the shoulder combining to define a corner area wherein the liner may be readily severed when it is desired to remove the liner from Within the fiber container so that non-liquid materials may be shipped within the container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel method of securing a liquid impervious liner within and to a ber container, the method including the steps of providing a liner which has an outwardly directed upper flange, which upper flange is seated on the upper end of the container when the liner is telescoped within the container, after which a chime forming member is engaged over the upper end of the container to hold the liner in place, followed by the shaping of the upper end of the container and the chime forming member with the resultant clamping of the upper end of the liner to the container.

With the above and other objects in View that will hereinafter appear, the nature of the invention will be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims and the several views illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

ln the drawing:

FGURE l is an enlarged fragmentary exploded vertical sectional view taken through a fiber container in accordance with this invention and shows the same after the liner has been initially positioned in and prior to the positioning of the chime forming member, an intermediate portion of the container being omitted.

PlGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken through the upper portion of the container showing the specific configuration of the upper portion of the liner, the chime forming member being -adjacent to but not in its fully telescoped position with respect to the container. f

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to FIGURE 2, and shows the chime forming member in position prior to the shaping of the upper portion of the container and of the chime forming member.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to FGURE 2, and shows the container with the upper portion thereof and the chime forming member shaped and the chime forming member now being in the form of the chime and clamping the upper portion of the liner to the upper portion of the container.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view talzen through the upper portion of the completed container and shows the manner in which the liner may be readily removed from the container utilizing a simple cutting implement. l

FGURE 6 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to FEGURE 3 and showsl a liner with a modiied form oi retaining flange, the liner being positioned relative to the container and being initially slightly engaged by the chime forming member.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that there is illustrated in FIGURE l a partially assembled fiber container formed in accordance with this invention, the fiber container being referred to in general by the numeral lil. The fiber container lli includes a generally cylindrical fiber body lll which has the lower portion thereof shaped as at l2 to receive a bottom t3 which may be formed of brous material or could be formed of metal, as desired. The lower portion of the container body 1l is reinforced by a lower metal chime member 14.

The container 1 is provided with a semi-rigid plastic liner 15 which may be formed of polyethylene, for example, or other similar plastics. The liner 15 is provided with an integral bottom 16, a body portion l? and an outwardly directed upper liange 1S. In addition, an

Upper portion of the liner 15 is shaped in the form of an inwardly directed bead 19.

The upper portion of the container body 11 is initially cylindrical, and while the container body is in this shape, the liner 15 is telescoped therein, as is generally shown in FIGURE l. When the liner 15 is telescoped within the container body 10, the outwardly directed flange 1S rests upon the extreme upper end 20 of the container body 11.

The container 10 is of the type having an upper metal chime 21 reinforcing the upper part of the container body 11. The chime 21`is initially in the form of a chime forming member 22 which is of a cylindrical configuration and has an inwardly curved upper portion 23. The chime forming member 22 is telescoped down over the upper portion of the container body 11 after the liner 15 has been placed within the container body 11, and the inwardly turned upper portion 23 is telescoped down over the upper end 20 of the container body 11 and the flange 1S of the liner, which flange is seated on the container body end 20. After the chime forming member 22 is in the position illustrated in FTGURE 3, by suitable conventional means the upper portion of the container 10 is shaped with the container body 11 and the chime forming member 22 being simultaneously shaped. As a result, the upper portion of the container body 10 is provided with an inwardly directed bead 2d which fills the bead 19 of the liner 15. During the shaping of the container body 11 and the chime forming member 22, the ange 18 is clamped against the upper end 20 of the container body 11. Further, the inturned portion 23 of the chime forming member 22 is turned into the inner wall surface of the extreme upper part 25 of the container body 11 to clamp the body portion 17 of the liner 15 against the inner surface of the container body 11. It is to be noted that the liner body 17 is slightly interlocked with the container body 11, as at 26. This interlock, together with the clamping of the ange 18 against the end 20 of a container body 11 results in the firm clamping of the liner 17 within the completed container 10.

As is best shown in FIGURE 1, the bottom 1d of the liner 15 is disposed slightly above the bottom 1.3 of the container 10. Thus, when the container 10, equipped with the liner 15, is filled with a liquid, the liner 15 may stretch until the bottom 16 rests upon the bottom 13. This tensioning of the body 17 of the liner 15 results in the elimination of any creases or bulges which could result in fatigue cracking of the liner 15.`

Referring once again to FIGURE 4 and also making reference to FIGURE 5, it will be seen that in the formation of the bead 24, there is formed an upwardly directed shoulder 27, which may be considered a cover engageable shoulder. This shoulder, together with the upper portion 25 of the container body 11, defines a corner area 28 in which an upper portion of the liner body 17 is engaged. This corner portion 28 facilitates the severing of the liner body immediately below the chime 21 by means of a pen knife or other cutting implement 29, as is best shown in FIGURE 5. Once the liner body has been severed in the corner area 2S, the liner 15 may be removed from within the container 10 and the container 1@ is then suitable for use in the storage and shipment of non-liquid materials.

In FIGURE 6, there is illustrated a slightly modified form of liner, which is referred to by the numeral 30. The liner 30, like the liner 15, includes a liner body 31 having an upper portion shaped to define a bead 32 and terminating at the eXtreme upper end in an outwardly directed flange 33. The flange 33, unlike the flange 18 which is molded to conform generally to the shape of the upper portion of the chime 21, is merely fiat. It is not necessary that the flange 33 substantially ll the chime 21 above the upper end 210 of the container body 11, it being merely necessary that the chime 21 clamp the flange 33 against the upper end 20 of the container body 11. It is also pointed out that the liner 30, like the liner 15, will be additionally secured in place within the container body 11 by the engagement of the inner edge of the chime 21 with the liner body 31 to effect a clamping thereof against the upper portion of the container body 11 in the manner generally illustrated in FIGURES 4 and 5.

From the foregoing, it will be readily apparent that the liner construction disclosed herein overcomes many of the deficiencies of the known liner constructions for fiber containers or drums and at the same time, is very inexpensive and may be incorporated in existing container structures without modifications thereto. In addition, the liner may be readily and easily removed from the container so as to permit the use of the container in the normal manner.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that novel and advantageous provision has been made for carrying out the desired end. However, attention is directed to the fact that additional variations may be made in the example liner construction and method disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as dened in the appended claims.

I claim: i

1. The combination of a fiber container, a liner and a chime; said fiber container including a tubular container body having an upper end portion terminating in a peripheral end surface, said liner being received in said container body, said liner having a liner body and an upper outwardly directed peripheral supporting ange, said supporting flange being relatively thicker than said liner body, said supporting flange being seated wholly upon said peripheral end surface whereby said liner is supported therefrom by said supporting chime, said chime overlying and gripping said supporting flange against the peripheral end surface of said container body to positively clampingly secure and retain said supporting flange between said peripheral end surface and said chime, and said container body being provided with an internal shoulder at the upper end portion to which the chime and liner body are adapted to conform.

2. The combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said supporting flange is substantially rectangular in transverse cross-section.

3. The combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said chime is spaced slightly above the container peripheral end surface and defines therewith an area of confinement into which the flange is received and both said flange and said area are generally semi-circular in transverse crosssection.

Referenees Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Italy Dec. 7, 

1. THE COMBINATION OF A FIBER CONTAINER, A LINER AND A CHIME; SAID FIBER CONTAINER INCLUDING A TUBULAR CONTAINER BODY HAVING AN UPPER END PORTION TERMINATING IN A PERIPHERAL END SURFACE, SAID LINER BEING RECEIVED IN SAID CONTAINER, BODY, SAID LINER HAVING A LINER BODY AND AN UPPER OUTWARDLY DIRECTED PERIPHERAL SUPPORTING FLANGE, SAID SUPPORTING FLANGE BEING RELATIVELY THICKER THAN SAID LINER BODY, SAID SUPPORTING FLANGE BEING SEATED WHOLLY UPON SAID PERIPHERAL END SURFACE WHEREBY SAID LINER IS SUPPORTED THEREFROM BY SAID SUPPORTING CHIME, SAID CHIME OVERLYING AND GRIPPING SAID SUPPORTING FLANGE AGAINST THE PERIPHERAL END SURFACE OF SAID CONTAINER BODY TO POSITIVELY CLAMPINGLY SECURE AND RETAIN SAID SUPPORTING FLANGE BETWEEN SAID PERIPHERAL END SURFACE AND SID CHIME, AND SAID CONTAINER BODY BEING PROVIDED WITH AN INTERNAL SHOULDER AT THE UPPER END PORTIN TO WHICH THE CHIME AND LINER BODY ARE ADAPTED TO CONFORM. 